Our team
Gillings School of Global Public Health Postdoctoral Fellow. Studies adiposity and obesity.
Clinical Research Associate Professor in Biostatistics specializing in using longitudinal models and latent variables to study the integration of biology, behavior and environment in relation to obesity and cardiometabolic disease.
Vice President of Border Health and Professor of Epidemiology, UTHealth Houston School of Public Health; Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology, UNC. Primarily focuses her research on identifying the genetic and environmental influences of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors, including obesity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension.
Professor of Epidemiology, specializes in cardiovascular epidemiology. Her specific research areas include genetic epidemiology, pharmacogenomics, and translation-oriented methods to assess the burden of cardiovascular diseases in diverse populations.
Associate Professor who specializes in the genetics of obesity and cardiovascular disease risk traits, with an overarching goal of integrating understanding of both genetic and environmental risk factors for disease, particularly among minority populations.
Carolina Population Center Postdoctoral Fellow, 2012-2014 focusing on gene-environment interactions and weight gain.
Geriatrician and health services researcher that recently joined the faculty at UNC Chapel Hill in September 2020. Focuses on obesity and the use of technology to improve one’s health.
Assistant Professor and clinician-investigator in Geriatrics. His research focuses on physical function in older adults, specifically biological and environmental factors that impact functional trajectories.
Associate Professor in Health Policy and Management. His research focuses on designing and evaluating innovative approaches to health service delivery in developing countries.
W. R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Biostatistics. Expert in biostatistics, data science, machine learning, and precision medicine.
Dennis Gillings Distinguished Professor of Biostatistics. Known for contributions to statistical methods in survival analysis and statistical genetics.
Professor of Epidemiology. Research integrates social and biological data to identify triggers of population variation in susceptibility to dementia, mental health, cardiometabolic, and immune/infectious diseases.
Professor in the Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics. Works on linking the human microbial community to health and disease.
Nutritional Epidemiologist. Investigates how education, income, and genetics affect dietary behaviors and physical activity, impacting health outcomes.
W. R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Nutrition. Researches global obesity epidemiology and the shifts in dietary intake and physical activity patterns.
Professor of Nutrition. A biological anthropologist focusing on the health and nutrition of women, infants, and children in developing countries.
Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Economics. Specializes in statistical problems associated with large survey data sets.
Professor of Genetics. Studies genetic variants and genes influencing common traits and seeks to understand their biological function.
Carolina Population Center Postdoctoral Fellow, 2022-2024. Studies the association between metabolites and cardiometabolic diseases.
Interested in the human microbiome and nutrition's role in health and disease, especially gastrointestinal-related cancers.
Dissertation: Sex Differences in Dietary Intake in Association with Cardiovascular Disease-Related Lipid Metabolites. 2024.
Studying the association between socioeconomic status plasma metabolites, and incident diabetes.
Dissertation: Population-Based Study of Plasma Metabolites as Mediators of the Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Incident Diabetes: A Social Metabolomic Approach to Health Disparities. 2023.
MPH in Applied Epidemiology (Nutrition) examining physical activity and diet associations with the gut microbiota.
Working on causal inference methods, specifically Mendelian randomization, with missing data.
Dissertation: The Use of Mendelian Randomization in Causal Effect Estimations. 2024.
Examining the association between metabolites and incident cardiometabolic disease.
Dissertation: Characterizing Adherence and Estimating Per-Protocol Effects for Pediatric Dolutegravir Use. 2025.
Examining the association between metabolites and incident diabetes and metabolites and time since diabetes diagnosis.
Dissertation: Inflammatory Mediators of Type 2 Diabetes Risk. 2023.
Studying metabolomic signatures of obesity traits.
Dissertation: Metabolomic Signatures of Adiposity Traits in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. 2023.
Examining the role of obesity in metabolite-associated diabetes and developing statistical methods to better handle interval censored exposure data.
Dissertation: Semiparametric Regression with an Interval-Censored Covariate. 2023.
Developing precision medicine analytics for understanding diet and cardiovascular disease in China.
Dissertation: Addressing Practical Challenges in the Application of Precision Medicine Methods to Observational Data. 2024.
Developing precision medicine analytics for understanding diet and cardiovascular disease in CARDIA.
Dissertation: Improving Real-World Applicability of Offline Reinforcement Learning. 2024.
Undergraduate student studying the association between red meat consumption and insulin resistance.
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2020. Focuses on COVID-19 and NC health, building collaborations with researchers across the state.
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2020. Works on COVID-19 and NC health, fostering statewide research collaborations.
Carolina Population Center Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-2021. Specializes in machine learning and multi-omics.
Carolina Population Center Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-2021. Focuses on multi-omics and obesity.
Carolina Population Center Postdoctoral Fellow, 2016-2018. Researches social epidemiology of Latinos.
Carolina Population Center Postdoctoral Fellow, 2016-2018. Incorporates biomarkers into population cohort data.
Carolina Population Center Postdoctoral Fellow, 2014-2016. Studies the role of spatial factors in health disparities.
Carolina Population Center Postdoctoral Fellow, 2012-2014. Investigates gene-environment interactions and weight gain.
Carolina Population Center Postdoctoral Fellow, 2011-2013. Studies acculturation and weight gain. Currently an Assistant Professor of Nutrition at UNC.
Interdisciplinary Obesity Postdoctoral Fellow, 2010-2011. Researches food price economics and obesity. Currently an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech.
Interdisciplinary Obesity Postdoctoral Fellow, 2009-2011. Studies residential selectivity and food environment. Currently an Assistant Professor at Oregon Health and Science University.
Dissertation on "Do active communities support activity, or support active people?" May 2009. Currently an Assistant Professor at Oregon Health Sciences University.
Undergraduate thesis on "Patterning of diet and metabolomics: CARDIA", May 2021.
Dissertation on "Changes in microbiome and changes in western diet," August 2020. Recipient of the Gillings Merit Scholarship 2016-2017.
Undergraduate thesis on "Development of an urbanized Chinese diet index," May 2020. Received the Gillian T. Cell Senior Thesis Research Award.
Undergraduate thesis on "The association between urbanized diet and the prevalence of overweight, diabetes, and hypertension in China," May 2020. Received the Gillian T. Cell Senior Thesis Research Award.
Dissertation on "Inorganic arsenic and type 2 diabetes," May 2018.
BSPH project on "Transition to a western diet and cardiometabolic risk," May 2017. Inducted into the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa of North Carolina, Fall 2015.
Dissertation on "Environment and obesity: The CARDIA Study," May 2016. Received the NIH Nutrition Training Grant and the UNC-Chapel Hill GEAB Impact Award.
Dissertation on "Cardiometabolic risk in China," May 2016. Awarded the NIH Fogarty International Center Training Grant.
Dissertation on "Pathways from environmental changes to CVD risk factors," May 2016. Received various awards including the Epidemiology Section Student and Trainee Poster Competition at The Obesity Society Annual Meeting.
Dissertation on "How changes in the neighborhood food environment influence diet and BMI over time," May 2015. Currently an Associate Policy Researcher.
Dissertation on "The built environment, walking, and obesity: The CARDIA Study," May 2010. Currently at University Chicago, Health Studies.
Dissertation on "The development of young adult obesity and its role on diabetes," May 2010. Currently an Assistant Professor at Furman College.
Dissertation on "Race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and obesity across the transition from adolescence to adulthood," May 2008. Currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at Duke University.
Dissertation on "Obesity, physical activity, and the neighborhood environment," May 2005. Currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota.